I Believe In America

In America, we all have the same opportunity to pursue our dreams. It is the philosophy that America was founded on. We live in the land of opportunity and the home of the brave. Every single individual has a chance to take a piece of the American dream. When I was a kid my dad would tell me that I could be whatever it was I wanted to be as long as I worked hard at it. I believed him then and I believe him now. This is why I believe in America, in the opportunity, in the challenge, and never letting other people tell you what you cannot do.

When I was a kid I can remember my dad starting his own plumbing company. My dad is a near high school dropout who never had money to even think about college. He went to a vocational technical high school to become a plumber like his father and his father before him. Every day he would get up and leave for work before I was awake and come back after dinner dirty and tired. I knew that he was working hard, but I did not really understand it until I was older. My dad was the only person in the company and the only person in the family with a job. If he did not make any money one week we did not pay the electric bill that month. People told him, including his parents, to just get a normal plumbing job, get a steady pay check, that it was too hard to start a company that way and that he would never make. He did not listen though and got a second job running his company in the day and working at the chemical plant at night. Soon his hard work started to pay off. The company began to grow and he quit his chemical plant job. I can still remember how happy my dad was and how proud I was off him when we moved Horizon Services from our basement into its first office building. He did not listen to people who did not believe in him and has inspired me to do the same. That is why I believe in America, in the opportunity, in the challenge, and never letting other people tell you what you cannot do.

Shop on Amazon and support This I Believe

We receive up to 10% of every purchase you make on Amazon through this link. So do all your holiday shopping here and help support This I Believe!

Top 100 Essays USB Drive

This USB drive contains 100 of the top This I Believe audio broadcasts of the last ten years, plus some favorites from Edward R. Murrow's radio series of the 1950s. It's perfect for personal or classroom use! Click here to learn more.

This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.